Well, we had our first viewer today! The lady [50's and single] very impressed! Exactly what she has been looking for. Loved the location, property, and privacy. We shall see what will happen. Loralee: 1) We cannot subdivided any smaller than what we have. We have a large Dairy farm 1/2 mile North [cannot smell it], and a large beef farm to the west. Even if we could, it wouldn't be worth trying as those neighbours would fight it, as it would cause problems for their livelihood. If you look at the one photo I posted with the 2 cattle sheds you will see in the far distance our dairy neighbours house. Ours is small and plain in comparison, so I do not think we over built. 2) We built 5 years ago as our old mobile home we had already lived it for 17 yrs old just wasn't cutting it anymore. We built with the intent to live here till we retired, but life has a way of changing plans, and my husband's job place closed down and he bought into a prospering business, everything we do is in town, and with your farming background, then you know what the BSE meant to cattle farmers, which we were as well. Sometimes you need to know when to cut your loses. Its time for a new chapter of our lives to begin. 3) We are renting our our cultivated acres to our dairy neighbour, and rent out our pasture as well. My husband manufactures large bale wagons as well from his shop in the back. No more farming for us. 4) The quality of our land is not exactly for potatoes. We live on a gravel ridge, with awesome drainage, but is better suited for cattle. The cultivated land is great for alfalfa, or cattle corn. We know our property is directed at a specific buyer, and are willing to wait. It only takes one person. Not too worried if Wpg people aren't interested. 5) Yes, we did get different realtors opinions.

Wow! Thank you for all the great tips/advice. Sorry for such a delayed response; been so busy with work and family and finishing basement projects. Always go, go, go around here. @Yardvaark - WOW! Thank you for putting together this concept sketch! Very nice for a visual person like myself. One thing I neglected to mention was future plan (3-5yrs) to have a shop built in north-eastern corner and driveway extended. Shooting for maximum width, but the wife wants yard, so theres some debate on what the final size will be. Fact is, no matter the size, it will provide some degree of privacy. Unfortunately we'll have 3-5 years of nothing there unless we do a bunch of some narrow, tall shrubs/trees. Thank you again for this design. I like the idea of bunching up the Chokecherry trees. I think we might place those in a non-key spot as they may be a little sparse for some time. @kitasei - Thank you. Don't mind the idea of something at edge of concrete. Closer to the east, we'll be extending the driveway to go further back. Along the patio we might consider some planter type material there. For the time being we like the openness of the yard as we have 4 kids that run around playing soccer, football, etc.. @Sherry_7bAL I totally understand the pitfalls of creating a line of anything which occurred to me shortly after the chokecherries went in. I have since shifted to love the cluster and variety idea. Like the trellis idea but cant commit on something, so it will take some research and reviewing of ideas to see if i can find something that "pops" out at me. I also dig Yaardvark's ideas with clustering chokecherries and think makes much more sense than trashing them. I'll capture some pics from back fence facing the house and post those. Thank you for you're thoughts! @kitasei - Great idea on the perimeter idea. I had planned on creating a border around the back yard. Wife thinks it will be too much to take care of. (weeds, etc..). We have made our other planting areas in front low maintenance by refreshing the top layers with soil-pep every 1-2 years and relying on Preen. The combination seems to keep weeds at bay. Those weeds that do pop through have such loosely packed roots, that they just pull right out. Ultimately, I would much rather have a variety of dense ground cover, but that will come in time. I would prefer that much more than relying on some chemical (Preen) for weed control. I had planned to use the soil-pep and Preen approach, at least initially, for perimeter in back. @NHBabs - YESSS.. I love your variety! This is exactly what I would love as long as I could use trees/shrubs hitting 15-20 ft in height in some points. I think combining what you have done and Yaardvark's awesome design would produce what I am really after. I LOVE IT. @kitasei - Totally agree with you on creating a border with gentile sweeps vs boring, straight runs and hard corners. Will take some effort to figure out depths at points. would like nice border to house our variety of privacy-giving trees/shrubs without taking too much from yard space. :) @Renee Texas Thank you - Will look into holly. At first thought, i suspect these can grow into dense hedges that will remain year round. They produce berries as well? Are they toxic to pets/humans? I'll need to research holly. Thanks again! @edlincoln Thanks! Trellis has definitely been on the list. I like vine idea. Will take some some planning, as you mentioned... don't want to get something too aggressive. There was a time where i wasn't too big on Spruce's, but i love them now. Thanks for the caution on the shade tolerance. Definitely prefer the variety of fast and slow growing pantings. Sort of a "Controlled forest". :) I'll look into Southern Magnolia, American Holly and Hemlock as options. Thank you! You're right about the Chokecherries. They're not terrible, but for what we were looking for, i think we've since identified better options (many of which have been covered here. :) ). Could always have been worse. :) It's a fine balance on space we want to dedicate to tree's. Totally understand there is a tradeoff between space and privacy. We would like to preserve as much usable yard space as possible, but privacy is, in this case, a necessity. By that, I mean a necessity to me for my personal comfort and well being (AKA Decompression zone). My wife is mixed on a private back yard. She's OK with it, and OK without it. :) She's a social butterfly whereas I can't quite say the same for myself. :) @lazy_gardens Yes - Totally agree on the build vs grow approach. Been kicking around the ideas. Would love to see the example you provided, but unfortunately looks like the link isn't working at the moment. Thanks everyone for your help! I really appreciate all of the guidance and advice you've provided. I have some planning to do. My problem is that I have a difficult time deciding what to eat for lunch, let alone decide on what to plant for years out of fear of disappointment. Sort of like the chokecherry idea. Wish we would have planned that out a little better. Another problem I have is when i get to nursery, i get stuck on the vast selection of varieties and without knowing more about the item, I think too much about it and cant commit, so end up leaving without anything planning to do more research then life gets in the way. :) I truly understand why folks hire landscapers. lol. Although I have no problem doing the work, i just need to know what i need to buy and where to plant it to obtain my goals and you all have helped a ton with that. Thanks again!

Thank you all so much for the advice and information. I will follow up the links. The plant is doing better after three weeks in another location. I had it in a container in a full sun spot in our backyard but that garden has poor air circulation as a result of us being surrounded by other houses on three sides. I moved the plant to the side of the house, which has fewer hours of direct sunlight but much better air flow and the plant is looking much better. I have fewer infected leaves, new leaves and new buds. I thought I was going to have to get rid of the plant eventually but I feel more hopeful now from the comments about helping it to ride out this very damp weather. The advice about learning which varieties will thrive in my area is spot on. I was about to buy more hybrid teas but after the experience with the Olympiad, I got an Apricot Drift Rose instead for its disease resistance and it seems to be doing very well: lots of glossy, dark leaves and adorable, fragrant little blooms. It looks great in a large urn container next to my front door. I'm renting, hence the containers. If anyone is willing to share what varieties they've had success with in Toronto, I'd be grateful.

Seniors in Ontario pay a co-pay of $2 or $3 for their prescriptions. I have never had issues with our health care. I can see my doctor usually the same day I call him and if he isn't available his clinic is open. In Ontario we get letters to remind us to get mammograms, colonoscopys and for men Prostrate screening. I can usually get a mammogram the within a few days or week of requesting one. I know in other cities there is a longer wait time and some patients are sent here. I don't take any prescription medications but when I have had the need for prescription medications in the past for acid reflux my Doctor knows I don't have prescription coverage so his nurse makes arrangements with the drug rep who dropped off boxes of the medicaiton I needed and I only had to go back to my Doctor to pick it up. I just let them know when I was running short. From what I have heard our prescription drug prices for the most part cost a lot less for the same prescription drug in the US. Right now Insulin seems to bring American's over here to pick up what they need for a much lesser cost. One thing I could never understand is some Doctors here will ask you to pay $100-200 a year if you are one of their patients. My Doctor has never done this but some of my friends family gps require this. I don't know if it is for Drs. notes, or to have prescriptions refilled. Some doctors do charge for having to call the pharmacy for your refills, mine doesn't. I must say the medical care my family members have received has been excellent. My older sister has had heart issues her entire life, had 2 hip replacements, 2 pacemakers, 2 different breast cancers, lung cancer, surgeries and the only thing she had to pay for besides some prescription meds before she became a senior was taxi rides to and from her appointments. My sister had daily medical care through CCAC - Community Care Access Centre. Twice a day a nurse would come to the house to give her IV antibiotics, she had a daily personal care worker come in to bath her and help her get dressed. When she was diagnosed with lung cancer and moved in with me so I could care for her I was provided with all the equipment I needed for her - a hospital bed. commode, she had oxygen and a weekly visit from the oxygen therapist, nurse practioners coming to the house, Hospice doctors, night nurse when I needed to get some sleep, she had a ventalyn machine and the meds to help her breath. If she fell or I needed help moving her I just had to call the EMS and they would come to help. Not a penny was paid out for any of this care or equipment. CCAC even paid for the private transport ambulance to take her to her chemotherapy appointments. She was put on a new chemo drug that cost over $700 a pill that was paid for but the doctor had to apply to OHIP for that to be covered. Same excellent health care for my other sister and my Mom who had long term Alzheimer's and pancreatic cancer who I took care of at home My cousin was diagnosed with breast cancer this time last year and she had the surgery the same week. Our health care isn't perfect, there are long wait times for certain procedures and long wait times at the ER. We have a doctor shortage especially for some specialists in Windsor. Right now there are only about 8 Family Doctors taking new patients but if you don't have a family doctor there is a clinic right around the corner and you can see any doctor there. Some procedures aren't covered like they used to be covered. If you need a mole removed you have to pay for it, I don't know what the other things are. We do pay for our health care through our taxes and through our employers but you never have to worry about paying up front to see your doctor or for most procedures. What OHIP covers https://www.ontario.ca/page/what-ohip-covers#section-0